This blog is about the making of the World War II documentaries called "The Heroes of the 354th Fighter Group" and "Angel from Hell - The Bill Perkins Story".
If you want to contact me, send an email to flashframe1966@gmail.com.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

I just received this French Newspaper article about the recent 70th anniversary of the death of my relative 1st Lt. William R. Perkins, a fighter pilot from Grand Rapids, MI.

It tells about Bill's unfortunate death on June 13, 1944. He was shot down and KIA while on a mission over Northern France.

My thanks to John Torchio, a fellow WWII researcher, for passing on my info and photos for use in the article!

The article mentions our video project and also gives out this blog's web address.

I used GOOGLE TRANSLATE to translate this news article. It may not be the perfect translation, but I believe it is very close:

DISCOVERED:

Only
Ed(on the right), the older brother of Bill (above), had the chance to
return home. A DVD will come out, based on notes taken by Bill in a
small notebook, who dreamed of being a writer.

70 years ago , the tragic death of young American Lt. Perkins.

On 13 June 1944, William Perkins, was flying his P-51 Mustang.

Age
23-year-old from Grand Rapids, state of Michigan (USA), a LT. in US
Air Force, the young man left for a mission to Rennes, accompanied by
three of his planes escapdron.

This day of June, around 6 am, the visibility is good and the weather clement.

Seeing a German column, the four planes descend to strafe.

One will fall at a place called the Mesnil-Rave.

Why,
a highly experienced pilot, did he crash into the pole and power line
and struck head-farm bakery and part of the house down the "Rave
Mesnil," before crashing into the plant apple a hundred meters away?

Was it a response of enemies on the ground?

After
many researches John Torchio, who grew up in the town, passionate
history of the Second World War, announces the hypothesis "

"In these days of the landing, the pilots were very solicited. Could be a bad appreciation due to persistent fatigue"

Civilians happen on the scene.

Charles
Simonson, a former camardes Bill, came in 1997 to unveil a plaque in
memory of the dead monumnet the friend gone too soon.

A
website created by Jon Teboe, his nephew, came in 2009 to fly over the
scene and meet the last witnesses of the time, recounts the life of this
hero of the shadow falls to Our Damepde Cenilly, so far of his native
land.

Lt Perkins, after having been interred at the cemetery two months of the commune, based in American military land in St. James

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

One of the cool things about today's technology is being able to communicate directly with the members of the 354th Fighter Group on Facebook. I am friends with a few of the guys and their families on Facebook.

I just found this post from Charles Hawley, a fighter pilot from the 354th. It made me happy to read it again.

And what a unique adventure it has been to interview and create the videos to give these guys the credit they deserve!

(You know you can find hours of our video segments on youtube - where they have reached over 100,000 views!)

I am glad these guys are getting a chance to see that people still care about what they achieved in the 1940s!